Minivans live!
The Minivan: Still In There Pitching
January 14, 2008
By Martha Thomas
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In 2001, Ford created a minivan with the works: temperature-controlled cupholders to heat or cool, a refrigerator with a
see-through top, a microwave, a built-in vacuum cleaner and, to the wonder of soccer moms everywhere, a Maytag washer and dryer. The Windstar Solution, alas, never went into production. Of its many features, only the electronic gadgets — the navigation system, video monitors and Gameboy hookups — made it into the mainstream.
The Solution may have come to the party too late. The nifty vehicle arrived about five years into the minivan’s slide in popularity: In 1995 the category represented 10.2 percent of all new vehicle sales; today it hovers at about 6 percent.
In the meantime, the SUV, like a steroid-charged Lancelot, roared in to woo bored and unsuspecting women from their stable, reliable seven-seaters-with-sliding-doors. In the mid-1990s, The New York Times ran a front-page story identifying this trend, with a headline marking the SUV as the new vehicle of choice for soccer moms.
SUVs have moved from a market share of 5.6 percent in 1990 to 30 percent as of 2004. Some of the once-major players in the minivan game — Ford and GM, in particular — have gotten out of the business altogether. The so-called crossover, a car-based vehicle with features and amenities taken from both wagons and SUVs, is the new big contender (and is, truth be told, a subset of that fat SUV slice).
Evidence of the minivan’s woeful state was my own experience in preparing this article. Auto writers enjoy the perk of test-driving the vehicles they write about. This time, there was not one minivan available in any of the manufacturers’ fleets for me to try.
But change is afoot. By the time you read this, I should have driven a 2008 Chrysler Town and Country, filled with outlets for electronic devices, dripping with video screens, peppered with cupholders and possessed of those very groovy “swivel ‘n’ go” seats I’ve seen in ads.
There’s more. In January, Nissan plans to show a futuristic, high-design concept at the Detroit Auto Show. Later this year, Volkswagen, in collaboration with Chrysler, will introduce its first “people mover” since the Vanagon, which went under in 1991.
In spite of its serious decline in popularity — one dealer described minivan design as the automotive equivalent of the muumuu — the minivan still hangs in there. That’s because no matter what happens in the world, no matter how much gas costs or whatever the facial expressions of the other parents in the carpool line, minivan customers will always return — because they continue to procreate.
“The trigger point is the arrival of the second child,” says Keith Price, a spokesman for Volkswagen. “When that kid comes along, all pretenses go out the window.” Parents just love the features that aren’t common in any other genre: automatic sliding doors, middle-row seats that flop down so anyone — from a 5-year-old to a 75-year-old — can climb into the back, big wide storage bins, nets on the doors, wells for groceries and, of course, cupholders.
Now Volkswagen is launching a yet-unnamed vehicle in collaboration with Chrysler. But don’t get your hopes up. For years there have been rumblings — among Microbus fans and even within the design corridors of Volkswagen itself — about a new-generation Microbus. In 2001, VW introduced a concept vehicle that was ahead of its time, with rotating second-row seats and four video monitors for backseat passengers. The exterior had the iconic flat front and two-tone paint job of the original Microbus.
The concept, scheduled to go into production in 2003, was shelved for reasons nobody ever fully explained. The upcoming Chrysler collaboration remains to be seen. (But forget about a camper top.) From the side, the vehicle will resemble a Town and Country, Price says, but the front and rear will be all Volkswagen, as will the “fit and finish” inside. I’m guessing that those 180-degree-turning seats from the former concept, remarkably similar to the “swivel ’n’ go” seats, will also appear in this Chrysler version of the VW.
Nissan designers have a different take on the minivan problem. While VW will probably rely some on nostalgia and some on its reputation — marketing its vehicle as both a throwback and as a hipper-than-average minivan — Nissan is all about the future.
Its vehicle, called the Forum, is introduced with conflicting proclamations: “The minivan is dead” and “Long live the minivan.” According to John Cupit, design manager for Nissan Design America, the concept “expresses the mentality of the modern mom — she wants to feel cool; she knows she’s cool.”
The biggest challenge in minivan design is incorporating what people want into a vehicle that they need, Cupit says: “People know they need the function of a minivan, but they also want an emotional connection with the car.”
The Forum has a longer wheelbase than others in the class and a streamlined, space-age profile. With no middle B-pillar on the sides, the sliding doors create a wide opening, like that of a house onto a patio. Way cool is the middle seat, which swivels to become a bench facing out at the world. The whole interior feels futuristic.
But it’s the electronic gadgetry that makes the Nissan people beam. Ceiling-mounted cameras show the driver exactly what is happening in each seat, and a speaker and microphone gizmo pointed at each passenger allows personalized communication (with volume control). A microwave is built into the center console, but — sorry — there’s no washing machine or vacuum cleaner.
Minivans, Cupit says, have to play two roles. “They’re mom-mobiles during the week, then on weekends Dad takes over. He cares more about performance and the fun-to-drive aspect.”
OK, we’ll pretend we didn’t hear that. (As if women don’t like fun-to-drive vehicles!) If the Forum ever gets built, women will no doubt appreciate its sports-car feel, the design of the cockpit and the clean diesel technology. That’s right: If built, the Forum will be part of Nissan’s green program, which is due to debut with the diesel Maxima in 2009.
The minivan is a survivor. It has escaped elimination, but not for want of trying by critics and competitors. Stay tuned for next season.
